cp1 Am wichtigsten / Most important

Film by France 24: Yemen's civil war: How to make truce work in Houthi-held Hodeida?

Will Yemen finally see a turn for the better in 2019? Last month's peace talks in Sweden raised hopes that the tide had finally turned in a nation battered by nearly four years of civil war and the ensuing famine, with three-quarters of the population dependent on humanitarian assistance. But the truce and prisoner swaps promised in December have yet to materialise.

Much of the pressure of late has been on the Saudis and the Western-backed coalition. They've been leading in air strikes that continue to kill innocent civiliants, but the United Nations and its mediation teams have voiced exasperation with both sides.

France 24's team went to the north, to territory held by Iran-aligned Houthi militias, that have consolidated their grip on the capital Sana'a since the assassination a little over a year ago of the country's longtime former president Ali Abdullah Saleh.

Are the Houthis honoring their commitments, in particular when it comes to the agreed truce in and around the strategic port city of Hodeida, a gateway to food and supplies for 70% of the country?

Our reporters have been to the Yemeni city of Saada, which is controlled by Houthi rebels. It has seen some of the worst battles since fighting broke out between the Iran-backed Houthis and the Saudi-led coalition in 2014. For civilians, particularly children, life has become hell on earth. Some people may find the images in this report disturbing. Just back from Yemen, FRANCE 24's reporter Cyril Payen speaks to us about the difficulties he and his team faced on the ground.

Film: FRANCE 24 reports from Hodeida, Yemen's lifeline to the outside world

Much of the food and humanitarian aid destined for Yemen must pass through the isolated Red Sea port city of Hodeida, which has been under siege for months.

Yemen's government coalition and the Houthi rebels agreed to a ceasefire in Hodeida in mid-December after a breakthrough at peace talks in Sweden. The agreement calls for the withdrawal and redeployment of rival forces from the city, but the pull-out has yet to be realised.

“This port is the most vital location in Yemen,” Houthi official Omar al Jarbhouzi tells FRANCE 24. “It is also the most attacked, and the most destroyed... The coalition uses it as a weapon to push its strategy.”

The port is the gateway for 70 percent of Yemen’s food. “There are 20 million Yemenis depending on supplies that should be arriving on these docks but aren’t,” Jarbhouzi said.

Yemen’s port city Hodeida has been under siege for months. With the threat of being shot by a stray bullet and the constant bombardment just going out for food is incredibly dangerous for the people of the city. FRANCE 24's reporters bring you this exclusive report.

“I’m always a bit scared when I’m in the streets,” says 20-year-old Abdullah, whose family moved to Hodeida from the south one year ago to escape the fighting there.

Abdullah is the only male in his family and therefore responsible for getting groceries. Due to the danger, his mother and six sisters haven’t dared leave the house for the past six months.

“It’s a sacrifice but I have to support my family. I have to balance studying with providing for my loved ones. It’s my duty, I’m all they have,” he says.

“When we arrived here we, we hoped to find peace after fighting forced us to flee our home. But it’s as if the war has caught up with us, as if we’ve swapped one war for another.”

In the last of five reports from war-ravaged Yemen, FRANCE 24’s reporters take us to the heart of the old city of Sanaa, the country’s ancient capital, which has been blighted by more than four years of war.

For more than 2,500 years, the old city of Sanaa has stood proud on the high plateau of northern Yemen. But as war has blighted the country, swathes of the ancient city have now been pummelled into ruins.

"When the war broke out, even though I survived the bombings, I lost everything, my job, my life,” says Sami Saleh al-Sayani, a tour guide in Yemen’s Old City. “At one point there was hope for Yemen. But the tourists are gone, everything has collapsed."

Sami leads us through the heart of the old city, where families struggle just to survive amid the ruins of bombing raids.

“We are not interested in politics, we are not Houthis,” residents say, referring to the Shiite militia that controls much of northern Yemen, including the capital city. “We are simple people of the Old City. We have lived here for generations, why are we bombed?”

In 2015 UNESCO placed the old city of Sanaa on its list of endangered World Heritage Sites.

"UNESCO rules are very clear in terms of world heritage protection, to prevent a protected city from becoming a war zone, otherwise it constitutes war crimes,” says Amat Alrazaaq Jahaf, at the Sanaa heritage centre. “But five years have passed, and I have never seen any UN official come to witness these crimes."

Yemen is no longer “on the brink” of catastrophe. Rather, it has already been pushed into the abyss and therein continues to fall. After four years of war, Yemen has suffered the destruction of its infrastructure, economy, social fabric, and much more. Yemenis are a nation traumatized by human loss and starvation. In the past year, photos of malnourished children have become synonymous with Yemen worldwide. Yet, as much as it deserved the media attention, the story of the world’s worst humanitarian crisis at times concealed the fact that this is not a natural disaster that has befallen Yemen. It is an accumulation of political conflicts within the country, exacerbated by reckless regional interference backed by the world’s Western powers.

Aid organizations are now preparing for another year of humanitarian suffering. The United Nations has announced plans to raise funds amounting to $US4 billion – a third more than last year’s appeal for roughly US$3 billion – with Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates funding about a third of the appeal. However, humanitarian organizations are reaching their capacity limits, while the immense looting and confiscation of humanitarian supplies in which belligerent parties are engaged means aid itself is at times helping to finance the war instead of reaching those in need. Neither the coalition powers nor the Western countries backing them should therefore content themselves with pouring aid into Yemen. Yemen desperately needs political decisions to be made.

At a closer look, developments last year demonstrated clearly that the crisis in Yemen is political at its core, and that’s how it needs to be addressed. It was new geopolitical dynamics that encouraged decisions to contain Yemen’s downward spiral toward the end of 2018 – even if decisions came late, unexpectedly, and at times resulted from events that on face value had little relation to the Yemen conflict.

At the epicenter of the conflict and its shifting dynamics were the city of Hudaydah and the nearby ports – the last access Houthi forces have left to the Red Sea. These ports are also the entry point for most of the basic commodities feeding a nation descending into mass famine. For some two years the Saudi-led military coalition has been pushing for a military campaign to take Hudaydah. However, international concern – that cargo shipments would be interrupted and trigger a humanitarian catastrophe – has been intense, and the coalition was waiting for a green light from its main backers, the United States and the United Kingdom, to pursue the offensive. Near the midpoint of 2018, Washington gave what amounted to a “yellow light”, according to a US government official who spoke with the Sana’a Center at the time.

The strategic and military preparations for the campaign changed the calculations of various groups in the anti-Houthi coalition. For instance, the UAE had for the past several years built proxy militias in areas the Yemeni government is meant to control, with these militias often challenging the government’s authority and some seeking to partition the country. In 2018, however, unity among anti-Houthi ground forces was seen as paramount for the battle for Hudaydah. With UAE prompting, these disparate groups closed ranks and put differences aside for the military campaign. Symbolic of this were the visits to Abu Dhabi by Yemeni President Abdo Rabbu Mansour Hadi and Islah party leaders in 2018.

Through the latter half of 2018, the coalition’s efforts to drive the Houthis from Hudaydah progressed slowly and effectively stalled at the southern edge of the city, threatening to become a battle of attrition. Simultaneously, international pressure was building on Saudi Arabia – pressure that was then key to facilitating the UN-led peace consultations in Sweden and the Stockholm Agreement that halted the battle for Hudaydah. It was, however, not the possible starvation of millions of Yemenis that created the international momentum for peace consultations and a ceasefire. Rather, it was the media spectacle around the murder of one man, Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, at his country’s consulate in Istanbul that provoked international outcry and prompted Washington and London to force Riyadh’s hand. Many Western leaders had been growing increasingly uncomfortable over reckless Saudi foreign policy and were embarrassed by reports of war crimes in Yemen committed by their ally, including bombing buses full of school children and siege tactics that have helped push the country toward mass starvation. However, while Western countries, above all the US and the UK, had enabled the Saudi-led military intervention in Yemen, they had no hand in Khashoggi’s murder, which allowed for an opportunity to criticize Riyadh while claiming the moral high ground.

The Stockholm Agreement, endorsed by the UN Security Council, came about thanks to international pressure, Saudi influence over the Yemeni government and the belligerent parties each wanting to avoid blame for the peace process’ failure. At the same time both sides were hoping to gain an advantage. The UN Special Envoy for Yemen Martin Griffiths secured the warring parties’ commitments not through compromise, but by watering down the language in the deal to the point that what the parties actually committed to is widely up to their own discretion. In the short time it has been since the talks, it is apparent the parties are interpreting their commitments quite differently. Neither regarded the talks as a stepping stone to a greater accord, but rather a localized accommodation.

President Hadi – technically still a ‘transitional president’ who was meant to leave office in 2014 – also knows his exit from power is almost assured if and when a peace deal is signed. Hadi’s choice to send a delegation to Sweden was, however, not his to make, given that he is beholden to his Saudi patrons. Indeed, Hadi has attempted to govern his country from Riyadh since 2015. The armed Houthi movement likewise attended the talks under duress. Their leadership is keenly aware that the greatest “victory” they could possibly achieve at this point is to survive. The pummeling Houthi forces have been sustaining on the battlefield has left them smarting and looking for a way to ease the pressure.

There is, however, little to no chance that the Houthis will cede a military defeat to their opponents. And while they have been militarily pressured, in the territories they control they have acted increasingly paranoid and continued to craft their own police state: persecuting minorities, staging show trials and executions, banning civil society groups and launching arrest campaigns to purge undesirables – such as free-thinking journalists, human rights advocates and others – institutionalizing the extortion of businesses, workers and aid organizations, conscripting children into combat roles, and propagating religious zealotry upon the masses. Before the Houthis took over, there was more than 20 daily and weekly independent newspapers publishing from Sana’a. Today, there are only Houthi publications. Meanwhile, the ongoing war also pushed them closer to Tehran, which is ironic given that Saudi Arabia and the UAE launched their military intervention in Yemen to prevent what they saw as Iranian encroachment in their backyard.

Thus, the war has become increasingly complex as it has proceeded, entrenching the clout of warlords and armed groups as it goes and advancing the country’s fragmentation. This trend is likely to continue in the absence of a broader settlement to end the conflict. The details of what a political settlement would look like remain elusive, but some of the parameters are clear.

Abdu Mohammed Yousuf, 23 years old, one of Al-Dumman village residents, located in the north of Bajil district of al-Hodeidah coastal province 'west of Yemen', rides a donkey cart for over 20 Km daily to get drinking water for his family that consists of 9 members five of them are female and four are male, the youngest of them is 3 years old.

Ridding a local made donkey cart, the black skin Abdu Yousuf transfers 12 gallons from his home to a water well located 20 Km away of his home and back to his home daily under the heat of the burning sun.

Among long ques, the young Abdu Yousuf waits his turn to fill his gallons with drinking water from a well that was dug and equipped by a wealthy citizen.

"I come here every four days to get safe drinking water," Abdu Yousuf told the Center of Yemen Humanitarian Relief and Development Organization (MONA) during a tour of the region.

"Sometimes I wait three hours until my turn comes," says Abdu Yusuf.

"The pumping of water into our house from the state water project has stopped because of the war that broke out and the lack of diesel," said Abdu Yousuf.

Over 15 thousands capita from al-Dumman and al-Habil villages benefit from the well that was provided by a wealthy citizen.

"Our situations were better before the war", "We suffer so much now that we go long distances to get water," says young Abdu Yousuf.

The total of renewable water sources in Yemen, according to the UN Water Statistics Report 2010, is estimated at 3.4 billion cubic meters a year, 900 million of which are covered by aquifers. Each year groundwater levels decrease from 1-7 m, with scarcity of recharge due to drought seasons. Thus, water consumption rates exceed natural recharge enormously.

The Yemeni per capita water rate, per year, is 130 cubic meters, while the international water rate per capita is 7500 cubic meters per year.

According to international organizations, Yemen is one of the most fragile countries in the world in terms of water security. It is possible to take advantage of sea water and desalinate it, but the cost is high for a relatively poor country such as Yemen.

An officer in charge stands on the water well to organize long queues of donkey carts. Young men/women line up each in front of his/her vehicle until his/her turn arrives, some of them in school uniform.

The Ninth grade school student Ahmad Haige, 16 years old, said he had to organize his time between school and bringing water home.

"I have to skip school 2 days weekly so as to provide drinking water for my family," said Haige.

Saudi Coalition “Admission” of Error in Bombing Cholera Treatment Center Implicates the United States

In June 2018, the U.S.-supported Saudi led coalition struck a cholera treatment center run by Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF) in Yemen.

The June air strike reportedly did not kill anyone, but it destroyed a medical facility that was about to open its doors to cholera patients.

As Ryan Goodman explained, in the days after the strike, Saudi Arabia provided members of the U.S. Congress an account of the strike that was misleading at best. In an email obtained by Just Security, the Saudi embassy failed to accept responsibility for the strike, and claimed that MSF had made an “error” in “not officially informing the Coalition of the new treatment facility’s location.” In fact, MSF asserted that it had notified the Saudi Coalition of the coordinates of the cholera treatment center twelvetimes.

The Saudi-led coalition recently reported its internal assessment of the incident, an investigation required by international humanitarian law.

The report repeatedly attempts to shift the blame for the strike to MSF. The JIAT asserts that, after reviewing the satellite imagery, it did not find any signs of distinction on the warehouse before the strike. (A claim contradicted, as Ryan Goodman earlier noted, by a researcher with the well-respected investigative group Bellingcat, who found that, “Geolocation — and therefore satellite imagery — of the cholera treatment center shows that the red crescent logos were even visible from space.”)

Nonetheless, the JIAT at points cryptically appears to admit mistakes. It states that “it became clear that the mission was based on information from a source inside Yemen, and that it did not complete the necessary procedures used by the Coalition Forces.”

If that is true—if the coalition forces rushed to carry out the strike and therefore failed to “complete the necessary procedures used by the Coalition Forces”—then this may be a clear incidence of an international humanitarian law violation. The JIAT, however, does not accept that responsibility. In closing, it recommends that “Coalition States provide voluntary assistance for physical damages to the warehouse” (emphasis added). But if the strike was taken with insufficient precautions, as the JIAT seems to admit, then the assistance would be mandatory, not voluntary.

The recent JIAT report on the June attack raises real questions, however, about the willingness of the coalition to ensure that its air strikes are in compliance with international humanitarian law—and about the willingness of the coalition to carry out effective investigations of incidents when they do occur.

The failure of the coalition to properly vet a targeting location not only implicates the coalition forces in a possible violation of international humanitarian law. It also implicates the U.S. in a possible violation as well. Common Article 1 of the Geneva Conventions, after all, provides that states have an obligation not only to respect, but to “ensure respect” of the Conventions. If the United States is supporting the coalition which it knows to be carrying out strikes that violate international humanitarian law, the United States could be violating its own Common Article 1 obligation to “ensure respect” of international humanitarian law – by Oona Hathaway

Inside the Largest Known U.S. Special Forces Ground Raid in Yemen | "Targeting Yemen" | FRONTLINE

FRONTLINE’s Safa Al Ahmad goes to the site of the largest known U.S. special forces ground raid in Yemen to investigate the escalation of the U.S. fight against Al Qaeda.

In “Targeting Yemen,” a new documentary that airs Jan. 22, correspondent Safa Al Ahmad returns to Yemen amid an ongoing war to report on American ground raids and drone strikes that have targeted Al Qaeda. She talks to Yemeni witnesses and survivors about what they’ve experienced.

Eight-year-old Mujahid has a dazzling smile. He starts recounting his experience of a U.S. ground raid on his tiny village in Yemen almost like it’s a fairy tale — one gone terribly wrong. “They came from far, far away. There were so many of them. Each one of them had someone else behind them.”

When a villager asks him what happened to him, he replies, “America.”

Mujahid says a block of cement from the roof fell on his back during the raid, damaging his back and hearing. His uncle was killed.

For several years, the United States has considered the Yemeni branch of Al Qaeda to be one of the most dangerous affiliates of the terrorist group. Under the Trump administration, the counter-terrorism fight against Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, or AQAP, has escalated, despite an ongoing multi-front war that has led to what the United Nations has called the world’s largest humanitarian crisis.

In Targeting Yemen, FRONTLINE correspondent Safa Al Ahmad travels to Yemen to visit the sites of American ground raids and drone strikes, and speak to witnesses and survivors like Mujahid to understand the impact of that escalation on civilians.

The raid on Mujahid’s village, which took place on May 23, 2017, is the largest known U.S. Special Forces ground raid in the country. The villagers say Al Ahmad is the first foreign journalist to visit the village since then.

“The people who lived in the village described an apocalyptic scene,” Al Ahmad says. “They were so frightened about the amount of U.S. soldiers that were sent, the helicopters, the drones.”

At the time, the Pentagon said seven terrorists were killed, with no civilian casualties.

A U.N. investigation later found that five civilians were also killed, including an 80-year-old man. The report said 50 U.S. soldiers took part in the raid and villagers “could not have been aware that only one particular house was being targeted” when they attacked the U.S. forces.

Targeting Yemen, which airs on Jan. 22, examines how the U.S. counter-terrorism operation against Al Qaeda in Yemen — through drone strikes and ground raids — has added to the fear and confusion felt by Yemeni civilians in a time of war.

Remark: Unfortunately, the film in full cannot be looked at in certain countries.

And

What the DOD Says About Its Operations in Yemen

The Department of Defense provided a statement in response to written questions from FRONTLINE about U.S. military operations in Yemen, and its efforts to avoid civilian casualties.

On Civilian Casualties

The DOD said it “maintains a firm commitment” to protecting civilians and takes “numerous steps to mitigate harm” to them, including by applying policies and practices that are “more protective of civilians than is required as a matter of law, including the law of war.”

For all forces, pre-deployment training “includes instruction on the law of war, the rules of engagement, and policies related to the mitigation of civilian casualties,” the DOD said. In the conduct of operations, U.S. forces “employ a variety of measures to reduce civilian casualties —from operational design to account for where civilians are located on the battlefield to steps taken to mitigate weapon effects on civilians who find themselves near potential targets, such as enemy forces. Lessons we learn in the conduct of operations are used to improve our practices to reduce civilian casualties.”

On the U.S. Role in Yemen

“The United States is committed to finding and striking AQAP’s terrorist network in Yemen,” it said. “U.S. forces conducted multiple ground operations and more than 120 strikes in 2017 to remove key leaders and disrupt the ability of al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula and ISIS-Yemen to use ungoverned spaces in Yemen as a hub for terrorist recruiting, training, and base of operations to export terrorism worldwide.”

U.S. forces, the DOD said, “are advising and assisting regional counterterrorism partners in the fight against AQAP and ISIS in Yemen. U.S. forces have provided our partners with intelligence support; airborne ISR; advice and assistance with operational planning; maritime interdiction and security operations; medical support; and aerial refueling in their efforts to degrade and destroy AQAP and ISIS-Y.”

“It is in our national security interests to pursue violent extremist organizations like AQAP and ISIS-Y that have attacked U.S. forces and interests in the region and abroad in order to degrade their ability to conduct further attacks. It is also in our interest to support our partners in the region as they pursue al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula and ISIS in Yemen as well.”

Among many political losses—from Yemen’s National Dialogue Conference’ (NDC) and the Houthis’ takeover of Sana’a in mid-2014—was the loss of women’s political power. At the time, Women secured thirty percent representation in the NDC and took part in the Constitution Drafting Committee, for the first time in Yemen’s history ensuring a thirty percent in any future committee formation.

Yet today, in the conflict resolution process, Yemeni women are almost without any political power at all. Yemeni women today face the same marginalization of other groups such as the youth and southern secessionist movement who are also absent from the negotiation table. Women, however, are doubly excluded as they face gender-based marginalization.

For more than a decade, Yemen has been the lowest-ranking country in the Global Gender Index, with a gender gap estimated today to be ninety percent or more.

Nonetheless, Yemeni women’s political activism has continued and received the support of the international community. The UN Special Envoy for Yemen, Martin Griffiths (and his predecessors, Jamal Ben Omar and Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed) have ensured women’s political participation in peacebuilding processes through creative ways, in order to apply . Over the four rounds of Yemen peace talks in Kuwait, Geneva, and Stockholm; women have worked closely with Griffiths’ team in a variety of advisory groups.

“All these groups have compensated for the lack of women’s political participation, as the warring parties refuse to include sufficient female representation at the negotiation table,” says one female member speaking on condition of anonymity.

More, however, needs to be done, says Dr. Najat Joma’an, Professor of Management and Finance at Sana'a University, and a member of the “Women’s Pact for Peace and Security” group. “These groups are a good step, but we need an effective women’s political participation [process] and both parties have to be pressured to include women in their delegations.”

A creative way to do so suggested by Ghanem is to induct women members in these peace talks.

A political will from the warring parties and the international community to address the political marginalization of women is key for increasing women’s political representations in Yemen’s conflict resolution process. Meanwhile, it is important that Yemeni women from all sides of the political spectrum keep playing a central role, within the available space – BY AFRAH NASSER

By benefiting from questionable wartime revenue streams and outright corruption, both the Houthi rebels and the U.S.-supported Hadi government are inhibiting a transition to peace.

The latest UN Panel of Experts report on Yemen raises new red flags about potential threats to near-term conflict resolution and stabilization. In addition to questioning the cohesiveness of government and rebel forces, it anecdotally details the rise of a robust, mafia-like war economy that creates disincentives for peace on both sides. The panel’s conclusions include a new, particularly damning assessment of Abdu Rabu Mansour Hadi’s government and its local affiliates, while also reiterating extant concerns about the Saudi-led coalition and the Houthi rebels.

The nearly 300-page document paints a bleak picture, drawing particular attention to the lack of cohesiveness that makes it difficult for either Hadi or the Houthis to decisively win the war, let alone effectively transition to peace. After all, if the disparate factions that make up either side lost the common enemy that binds them together, they may well fracture into opposing forces, creating a series of small civil wars across the country.

On one side, the Hadi government is unable to exert authority over the areas it claims to control, its repeated non-payment of salaries has contributed to troop discontent, and it faces intense and often violent opposition by some southern forces. On the other side, Houthi forces are a similarly loose collective linked together more by a set of common adversaries than common interests. The panel suggests there are “signs” that the Houthis are becoming less politically inclusive in their leadership ranks—a fact that likely exacerbates the broader lack of cohesion. Indeed, the panel notes that the Houthis are “facing slightly increasing levels of dissent” from major tribes and at the street level. Recruitment has reportedly taken a hit due to a currency crisis that caused food prices to rise, and the practice of offering low pay to hungry, poor, often illiterate young recruits is hardly a recipe for close-knit forces.

WAR ECONOMY AND CORRUPTION

Coupled with the lack of cohesiveness, various destabilizing factors in Yemen have led to the development of a significant war economy. Inevitably, those who benefit from this economy are far less inclined to facilitate a transition to peace, and they could act as spoilers if their interests are threatened. These elements include many important stakeholders in the north and south, some with roles in Houthi or Hadi governing structures.

For example, to finance the war effort, the Houthis rely on rents and fees in Sana that the government used to collect. According to last year’s panel report, this revenue totaled at least 407 billion Yemeni riyals ($1.6 billion). Moreover, they collect import taxes at Hodeida and al-Salif ports, and at a checkpoint in Dhamar province through which nearly all of the country’s imports pass, even those originating from entry points not under Houthi control.

The panel also notes that the Houthis make significant sums by taxing oil donated by Iran—perhaps tens of millions of dollars per month. The oil is imported through Hodeida with falsified paperwork suggesting an origin in the United Arab Emirates or Oman, though the true origin is Iran. This allows vessels to avert detection by the coalition or UN maritime monitors.

In addition to funding the Houthi war effort, the war economy has created ample opportunities for corruption on both sides of the conflict. The Hadi government and its local affiliates are particularly taken to task in this year’s panel report. The previous two reports used the word “corruption” only once, but this new edition uses it over twenty times—eight times in direct relation to the government, two in relation to the Houthis, and at least nine in relation to both. The panel assesses that corruption is contributing to the humanitarian crisis by artificially raising prices and impeding the import of commercial goods.

At the same time, however, the panel notes that the Houthis are less reliant on Iran supplying whole weapons systems, suggesting that they are now assembling some systems locally and looking abroad only when they need “high-value components.” – by Elana DeLozier

«The Invisible Killer»... Organization monitors (103) political assassination in Aden in three years

The SAM Organization for Rights and Freedoms said it monitored 103 assassinations in the city of Aden from 2015 to 2018.

According to a recent report titled "The InvisibleKiller" the assassinations focused on security men, mosque preachers, and politicians, and operations began 43 days after the restoration of the city of Aden from the grip of the Houthi militia and the control of the city by the UAE forces.

The Geneva-based organization said its report on assassinations comes after these facts have been a mystery for some time until the edges of clues that may lead to the truth are revealed.

"Sam " said that her report relied on the statistics methodology based on the monitoring and documentation of the assassinations during the period specified in the report, where the report monitored (103) The facts of the assassination, in the province of Aden, and worked to follow them through the media, and to communicate with the families of the victims, the concerned and the authorities of human rights and security in an effort to break the mystery of this disturbing crime, which has pushed many political and religious leaders to migrate from the city of Aden and seek a safe place that is not in the hands of assassinations.

The report's importance lies in the fact that it is the first qualitative and analytical report highlighting the wave of assassinations that hit the government's interim city of Aden for legitimacy, with security, military and civilian figures for political aims, after it was retrieved from Houthi militias on July 17, 2015. The city of Aden and its surrounding areas have undergone the control of the UAE forces as part of the Arab coalition forces that are waging war in Yemen with the aim of entrusting the legitimate government to regain control of the land and end the coup d'état carried out by the Houthi rebels, according to the stated objectives of the Coalition.

According to the report, instead of the relative stability the city was supposed to see in preparation for the return of the legitimate government, the opposite occurred, the security situation deteriorated, and the city of Aden was ravaged by a wave of assassinations believed to be of a systematic and organized nature, targeting certain segments of the military and security and civilians, by systematic means, "which put a number of questions about how the assassinations were carried out, and the dubious silence of the security services and forces in control of Aden, even for issuing a statement explaining what is going on in Aden, and the beneficiaries of these assassinations that targeted even the first man in the province Maj. Gen. Jafar Mohammed Saad December 6, 2015 ".

According to Sam, the largest number of victims is security officers, who numbered 42, spread over criminal investigation, the political security apparatus, the security of Aden airport, followed by the preachers and imams, and the victims (23), including 12 imam and preachers belonging to the Salafist Current, and (4) belonging to The Islah party and one preacher belonged to the Islamist-oriented Al-Nahdha movement. The military came fourth with eight people, followed by leaders and members of the resistance, with seven people, in addition to a variety of 14 people, including activists, athletes, professors, judges, and prosecutors.

Sam confirmed in her report that the wave of assassinations began immediately after the war, and then continued

On Yemen, the Trump administration has tied the worst humanitarian disaster in the world to stopping the spread of Iranian influence. The crisis in Yemen was not the focus of Pompeo’s Cairo speech on January 10, where he mentioned Iran at least two dozen times, including the promise “to expel every last Iranian boot” from Syria. Pompeo did express support for UN efforts to achieve peace in war-torn Yemen, but announced no special US diplomatic initiative toward that end.

Trump has made clear his own focus on Iran in his rare statements on Yemen. “The country of Iran,” an official White House release explained, “is responsible for a bloody proxy war against Saudi Arabia in Yemen… On the other hand, Saudi Arabia would gladly withdraw from Yemen if the Iranians would agree to leave.”

Iran certainly supports the Houthis in Yemen, but there is no need to exaggerate its support.

The House, now with a Democratic majority, is poised to push the measure again, likely to be taken up relatively soon after the federal government shutdown ends. Trump will most likely veto any measure to end US support for the Saudi war in Yemen that passes both chambers. Given the numbers, a successful veto override is very much in question.

Such an outcome would be an embarrassment for the Trump administration, and a further impediment to its larger approach to the region.

The administration’s much-touted Middle East Security Alliance (MESA)—the closest thing to a Trump doctrine—first emerged during the president’s first visit overseas—to Saudi Arabia. Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MbS) presented Trump with an Arab, Islamic, American conference to showcase his ability to bring Arab and Islamic countries together behind what he considered to be mutual national security interests.

MESA, sometimes referred to as the Arab NATO, springs from the notion, jointly held by Saudi Arabia and the Trump administration, that Iran is responsible for much of the trouble in the Middle East and that it must be countered by land, sea, and air.

Yemen has thus become a footnote in this grand design and a pawn for regional rivalries. The conflict in Yemen remains a stubborn one, at least as far as a military resolution is concerned.

In the final analysis, the Trump administration, by giving MbS a pass on Khashoggi’s murder and refusing to press Saudi Arabia on the killing of civilians in Yemen, is giving Saudis the impression that they could continue indefinitely with their attempts to defeat the Houthis with US support.

The MESA idea, unrealistic though it may be, is further encouragement for the Arab coalition to seek victory on the battlefield rather than a diplomatic solution. In addition to ruining Yemen, nothing about this war is in the United States’ national security interests. The longer the war goes on the stronger the Houthis’ relationship with Iran gets, the further widespread is the al Qaeda presence and, to boot, the Russians are getting to fill another void left by the United States by inserting themselves into the peacemaking process with their increased contacts with the south of Yemen—an area with which the Soviet Union once had a very special relationship when south Yemen had a Marxist government.

The only hope for ending the Yemen war lies with enough congressional pressure to force the administration’s hand to use its military assistance to Saudi Arabia as leverage—actually cutting off all Yemen war-related help in order to open the way for serious multilateral diplomacy and bring about a solution – by Nabeel Khoury

cp1a Am wichtigsten: Seuchen / Most important: Epidemics

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Swine Flu Now Spreading in Yemen as Health System Crumbles under Saudi Attack

Flu cases that could otherwise be treated are leaving patients in critical condition and facing death. Yemen’s health officials estimate that 80 percent of those with H1N1 risk death owing to the lack of medication available and Yemen’s devastated health infrastructure.

Mohammed, a father of three, died last Friday, overcome by the symptoms of the swine flu virus, two days after being treated in al-Azal’s intensive care unit. Issam Al-Harazi, Data Officer for epidemiological surveillance at Yemen’s Ministry of Health, told MintPress News that al-Rajwai died as a result of a viral infection of his respiratory system, likely caused by the H1N1 (swine flu) virus, which affected the cells of his nasal mucosa, throat and lungs, and then moved to the rest of his body.

The spokesman for the Ministry of Health and Population in Sana’a, Yousef al-Hathari, told MintPress that there have been a total 418 suspected H1N1 cases in and around the province of Sana’a and in northern Yemen over the past two months alone, and 86 people have died from the virus — though al-Hathari suspects the number of deaths to be higher, as many cases go unreported.

Al-Hathari went on to say that this week health centers had received “46 cases of swine flu in the secretariat of the capital, Amran, and Ibb provinces, and 11 deaths,” which means the virus is likely beginning its spread across the region.

In fact, according to Yemen’s Health Ministry, the virus is spreading rapidly in many of Yemen’s provinces. Al-Hathari explained that “in winter the incidence of influenza is already high and the climate is conducive to the spread of the virus.” If the virus continues to spread among Yemen’s vulnerable population, it could cause another major health disaster in a country already grappling with a cholera epidemic, especially in the absence of vaccines and treatment exacerbated by the Saudi-led coalition’s crippling blockade.

H1NI, colloquially known as the Swine Flu, is a subtype of the common influenza virus prevalent among pigs, but transmission of the virus from animals to humans is rare and does not always lead to human infection. However, when it does develop in humans, it carries a significantly higher risk of fatality than the common flu.

The death of Mohammed al-Rajwai, a public-sector worker, has sparked fear in Sana’a that the virus will spread, especially considering the compromised state of Yemen’s health infrastructure owing to the ongoing war and the blockade that has been imposed by Saudi-led coalition.

“We are living in an environment infested with all kinds of viruses thanks to the war,” said Fahd Assad, a father of four whose sons are still recovering from cholera. “Now I am afraid of swine influenza, God help us.” Assad lives in the district of Dares, an overpopulated slum north of the capital with a high population density, including refugees who fled from violence in nearby Hodeida, Hajjah and Sa’ada.

The Saudi-imposed war on Yemen has marked a turning point. Before it began in 2015, outsiders seldom gathered in big cities like Sana’a, limiting the spread of infectious diseases such as influenza. Indeed, some rural residents could live for years without exposure to many of the infections that frequent large cities. But the war has forced people from across rural Yemen to flee to Sana’a seeking shelter from the violence. People from outer provinces are now directly connected – and more liable than ever before to be exposed to the flu and other infectious diseases.

Officials in Sana’a told MintPress News that the spread of the H1N1 virus poses a potential for disaster to the population.

To make matters worse, Yemen’s hospitals suffer from a lack of life-saving medicines as a result of the Saudi coalition’s imposed siege on the country. Flu cases that could otherwise be treated are leaving patients in critical condition and facing death. Yemen’s health officials estimate that 80 percent of those with H1N1 risk death owing to the lack of medication available and Yemen’s devastated health infrastructure. Officials blame the countries of Saudi-led coalition for the influx of diseases and epidemics that have taken hold in Yemen since the war began.

Observers warn of a major health disaster in Yemen if the epidemics continue unabated, and say international health organizations have been slow to respond.

Unlike Mohammed al-Rajwai, few patients admitted to local hospitals with suspected H1N1 cases wind up in intensive care. In fact, most people who contract the virus are unable to reach a hospital at all, as so many have been destroyed in the war. For example, in the district of Ahem, a remote area in northern Hajjah province, the single hospital serving the entire region was leveled by Saudi bombs.

More than three years of near-constant airstrikes by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have left Yemen’s roads impassable and have turned its hospitals and clinics to rubble, while a ruinous blockade of Yemen’s ports has depleted the country’s supplies of life-saving medicine. The hospitals that have not been destroyed barely function; doctors have not been paid and power outages are frequent.

The U.S.-backed, Saudi-led coalition has repeatedly, systematically and deliberately attacked health facilities in Yemen since it began its military campaign against the country in 2015 – by Ahmed Abdulkareem

The H1N1 flu, also known as swine flu, is one of the most common epidemics and diseases of recent days among Yemenis.

The collapse of the health system due to continued aggression and siege has greatly increased the spread of diseases in Yemen.

The Yemeni Ministry of Health recorded more than three hundred cases of swine flu from different Yemeni provinces, while the hospitals in the capital Sana’a recorded the death of more than fifty people infected with the epidemic.

Yemeni hospitals suffer from the lack of life-saving medicines because of the siege. These flu cases face death and their condition is very critical.

Doctors say 80 percent of cases of H1N1 flu are at risk of dying because of the lack of medication. They hold the countries of aggression responsible for diseases and epidemics that takes Yemenis’ lives.

Observers warn of a major health disaster if the epidemics continue to spread, especially with the absence of vaccines and special medicines for treatment besides the US-Saudi aggression targeting of health facilities. They criticize the role of health organizations that they have made only promises and a great slow pace of action and responsibility.

A medical source in Ibb province of central Yemen said on Wednesday that 11 people from one family were infected with the H1N1 (swine flu) virus in the Al-Sayani district.

According to the source, the family father, a 30-year-old, was diagnosed with flu symptoms after returning from the Umrah trip, and the infection transmitted to his wife, mother, his father and all 11 family members, including children.

The incident comes days after a case of a swine flu death from the Al-Qafr district north of Ibb Province, according to the Al-Masdar online correspondent.

The epidemic has spread in the capital, Sana'a, and a number of the country's northern governorates, with 79 deaths among 385 cases.

Yemen’s warring parties have failed to pull troops from the main port under a month-old truce, putting the first major diplomatic breakthrough of the four-year war in jeopardy and reviving the threat of an all-out assault that could unleash famine.

The resignation this week of the U.N. official monitoring the ceasefire, who quit days after his convoy was shot at, has hammered home the potential for the peace deal to collapse. If fighting restarts in earnest around the port of Hodeidah, the main supply route into the country could be cut off, leaving no way to feed millions of people on the verge of starvation.

“These coming weeks are make or break for the conflict. We will either see a restart of the political track, or we will likely see a significant military escalation,” said Adam Baron of the European Council for Foreign Relations.

The truce itself has largely held in the port of Hodeidah since coming into force a month ago, but late on Wednesday clashes at flashpoints on the city’s edges intensified.

And the withdrawal of troops that was meant to take place by Jan. 7 has stalled. Pulling out troops was seen as a pivotal confidence-building measure that would build up the trust needed for political talks.

Without it, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres acknowledged last week, “lack of trust” had become a “complicating factor” in trying to get the parties to talk.

The agreement also foresees a political track of talks to end the war. But a lack of progress could test the patience of the United Arab Emirates, which leads military operations on Yemen’s Red Sea coast for the Saudi-led coalition.

“People are worried that the war will start again after failure in implementing the deal,” said government employee Abdullah Abdul-Bari, a 51-year-old resident of Hodeidah.

The Redeployment Coordination Committee had met twice in Houthi-run territory, but attempts to convene a third meeting in areas held by coalition forces failed because the Houthis were unwilling to cross the frontline, sources told Reuters.

The Houthis accused Cammaert of bias against them. Houthi spokesman Mohammed Abdul-Salam said that unless Cammaert’s boss, U.N. envoy Martin Griffiths, dealt with it, “it would be difficult to talk about anything else”.

“It is a very fragile moment. People are still politically and rhetorically committed to the Stockholm Agreement as the best way forward. The question is whether we can get tangible progress on the ground,” said International Crisis Group analyst Elizabeth Dickinson.

The Arab states show increasing signs of running out of patience. UAE Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Anwar Gargash on Wednesday blamed the Houthis’ “obdurate behavior”.

Witnesses and source: killing of civilians and wounding of two children by Houthi shelling on Hees city

Two civilians were killed and two children injured last night, with artillery shelling by Houthi militants on a house in the city of Hees, south of Hodeidah Province, on Saturday.

Witnesses told the Al-Masdar online that the Houthis bombed the city with a number of artillery shells, and one of the shells landed on a house, resulting in civilian casualties belonging to the same family.

They noted that the wounded were two children and were severely injured.

On the one hand, a government military source said that the Houthi militants are continuously shelling the city under the control of the government forces

The artillery force of the US-backed saudi-led aggression coalition's militias on Saturday shelled areas in the city of Hodeidah, a security official said. The shelling targeted faculty of Medicine which caused heavy damage

To help save the Yemen Peace Deal, the international community needs to act now

The EU should lead the international community in ensuring that the Yemen Peace Deal is not allowed to collapse

All of this now hangs in the balance.

Ever since returning from Stockholm, the Houthis have consistently, verifiably, and with callous impunity, violated both the letter and the spirit of the agreement.

In a letter to the UN Security Council sent on 15 January 2019, the Coalition to Support Legitimacy in Yemen documented 573 violations of the ceasefire by the Houthis. Since the Stockholm agreement came into force, 41 coalition soldiers have been killed and 396 have been wounded.

But that is not all. Instead of grasping at the opportunity that the agreement provides, the Houthis have done everything to obstruct its implementation and circumvent its conditions.

Their refusal to reopen the Hodeidah-Sana’a highway is holding up critical humanitarian supplies; a deadline for the Houthis withdrawal from Hodeidah and the ports of Hodeidah, Salif and Ras Issa has passed; measures to de-escalate the situation in Taiz have stalled; and dozens of new Houthi fortifications have sprung up across Hodeidah in flagrant violation of the agreement.

Houthi intransigence and delay tactics have also obstructed the work of the UN Redeployment Coordination Committee (RCC), headed by General Cammaert – by Mohamed Issa Abushahab, the UAE’s Ambassador to the EU

My comment: As the Emirates try to tell us. Off course, this is biased; now, Euractiv should give a stage to the other side (but won’t). Both sides had obstructed at Hodeidah. – Does the UAE want to restart its military assault, and should statements like this one try to justify it? Do not forget that the UAE is the mastermind of the Hodeidah crisis – by enforcing the aussault against Hodeidah by their Yemeni anti-Houthi militia (sometimes labeled as “Yemeni forces” or even “Yemeni army” by anti-Houthi propaganda). – Of course, the Hadi government also puts the blame on the Houthis:

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Hodeidah Governor: Houthis Recently Recruited 1,000 Child Soldiers

Hodeidah governor al-Hassan Taher accused on Friday Houthi militias of recently deploying around 1,000 child soldiers on the northern front of the Yemeni province. In a telephone call with Asharq Al-Awsat, the governor said that since the arrival of Dutch General Patrick Cammaert in Hodeidah, “government apparatuses have documented a rising level of violations” of the Stockholm Agreement. Cammaert chairs the Redeployment Coordination Committee tasked with implementing the provisions of the Swedish agreement struck last month between Yemen’s warring sides. According to the governor, Houthis are bringing new fighters, mainly about 1,000 children, to the city. “Militias have also worked on redeploying their fighters in several positions in Hodeidah,” Taher said, adding that lately, Houthis have failed to recruit children from the province and the Tihama region, where residents strongly disapprove of the militias’ plans.

My comment: Hadi government’s governor. Both sides accuse each other of strengthening reinforcements. – In this constellation, the 1,000 child soldiers story looks like a propaganda story.

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"Gutierrez" stresses the need to implement a ceasefire agreement in Hodeidah

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Gutierrez stressed the need to ensure the implementation of the ceasefire agreement in Hodeidah expressing the hope that progress will be made towards a political solution and political process to end the fighting in Yemen.

The statement came in a direct dialogue on Facebook while participating in the World Economic Forum in Davos, according to the United Nations News Centre.

The dialogue is an essential tool for solving problems, Gutierrez said.

"The distribution of humanitarian aid must be allowed in a way that addresses the most difficult humanitarian catastrophe of the past decade so that Yemen can finally move and solve its problems, but there is still a long way to go," he added.

"We must all join our efforts to ensure that the parties in Yemen understand that war does not solve any problem," he said. My grandfather always said that the worst deal, better than the best war. "

Statement of the stand of Abductees Mothers Association in Al-Khokha A year passed, followed by a year, and dozens of Hudaidi people are unjustly experiencing the bitter taste of kidnapping, hiding and torturing by Al-Houthi .... (text in image)

The present note is submitted pursuant to paragraph 7 of Security Council resolution 2451 (2018), in which the Council requested the Secretary-General to report on progress regarding implementation of that resolution, including any breaches of commitments by the parties, on a weekly basis, as called for by the parties, until further notice. The present report covers the period from 12 to 18 January 2019.

Situation in the city of Hudaydah and the ports of Hudaydah, Salif and Ra’s Isa

Monitoring of the ceasefire in Hudaydah

During the reporting period, mutual allegations of ceasefire violations continued. Alleged incidents were most commonly reported in front-line areas of the southern part of Hudaydah governorate, along key routes running from Houthi-held territory in the east to territory held by the Government of Yemen on the western coastal strip, and in contested areas of Hudaydah city. Most alleged incidents related to engagements involving direct and indirect fire.

The Durayhimi district, located to the south of Hudaydah city, continues to be the subject of most of the alleged incidents

Redeployment of forces

The Chair of the Committee presented the parties with a bridging proposal for phase I redeployment.

Army's spokesman: coalition insists on position of non-respect for Sweden's agreement, continues violations in Hodeidah

Spokesman for the Armed Forces Brigadier General Yahia Sarie on Friday said in a statement to Saba that the mercenaries of the US-backed saudi-led aggression coalition insist on their position not to fulfill what they committed to in the Swedish agreement and try to avoid the agreement. Brigadier Sarie referred to the continuation of the aggression and their mercenaries for their intensive violations in Hodeidah and the clear unprecedented escalation in the other fronts which reflects the enemy's unwillingness to cease fire and bring peace to Yemen. He pointed out that despite the commitment of the army and the Popular forces to respect the ceasefire in Hodeidah, the aggression and its mercenaries continue to commit violations. They have committed 158 violations in Hodeidah over the past 48 hours, including the firing of 101 artillery shells, 15 rockets and 31 shooting attacks from various medium and heavy weapons towards houses, farms of the citizens and the positions of the army. He added that that the shelling focused mostly on Saffron, Al-Sheikh, Al-Kouei, Al-Shijun, Al-Ittihad, Al-Qumah and Al-Waha areas. He pointed out that the monitoring of mercenaries who were building fortifications and developments at Falla, their reinforcements and movements between Akd and Shaab city, north of the Hashidi and among 22 May, Shabaka and Ghirsy. He added that movements of pick-ups, cars and armored fighting vehicles of the mercenaries among Ghirasy, Moudamara Imar, and Kasar were monitored while the reconnaissance and war aircraft of the enemy were continuing to fly over the city of Hodeidah and a number of districts. The spokesman of the armed forces added that the artillery of the mercenaries of the aggression bombed one of the silos of the Red Sea mills and that led to the fire in a cowardly action which reflects the extent of hatred and indifference to life of citizens.

Reports from Hodeidah indicate that a fire at the Red Sea Mills on the eastern outskirts of Hodeidah City has damaged two silos. While the circumstances are being confirmed, it appears that the fire started as a result of mortar fire.

WFP currently has 51,000 metric tons of wheat stored at the Red Sea Mills, a quarter of its incountry wheat stock and enough to feed 3.7 million people for a month. WFP has been unable to access the Mills since September 2018 because of fighting.

“The loss of this wheat comes at a terrible time,” said Ms. Lise Grande, Humanitarian Coordinator for Yemen. “More than 20 million Yemenis, nearly 70 percent of the entire population, are hungry.”

The #Iran-backed #Houthi militia fighters have attacked the Joint Resistance Forces on Friday from the eastern parts of the city as well as from the southern parts of #Hodeidah university while the militia is now shelling residential areas.

US-Saudi mercenaries continue to violate Stockholm Cease-Fire in Hodeidah, injuring a child by artillery shells targeting At-tohayta district. The forces of the US-Saudi aggression also attacked sites of Yemeni Army and Popular Committees southern Hais district with armored, medium and heavy arms. It targeted with dozens of shells and missiles Al-Hali district. Fighter jets and reconnaissance drones continued to fly intensely over Hodeidah city and southern districts.

Security officials say heavy fighting has broken out between government-allied troops and Shiite Houthi militia in and around Yemen’s contested port city of Hodeidah. Thursday’s fighting, which went on for about three hours, is thought to be the biggest breach yet of a fragile cease-fire in the city reached in UN-sponsored talks in Sweden last month. Officials said the two sides used heavy weapons, including mortars, and were bringing in reinforcements.

The head of a United Nations mission tasked with overseeing a peace deal in Yemen’s Hodeidah port city plans to step down next month and will be replaced with a Danish official, U.N. diplomats said on Thursday.

Retired Dutch general Patrick Cammaert arrived in Hodeidah late last month to lead an advance team of monitors observing a ceasefire and redeployment of forces agreed by the Iranian-aligned Houthi group and Saudi-backed Yemen government forces.

Diplomats, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the United Nations plans to replace Cammaert next month with Danish Major General Michael Anker Lollesgaard, who led a U.N. peacekeeping mission in Mali in 2015 and 2016.

Lollesgaard - who, like Cammaert, will report to U.N. Yemen envoy Martin Griffiths - will oversee boosting the monitoring mission to up to 75 observers, a move that was authorized by the Security Council earlier this month.

UN denies Patrick Cammaert has resigned as head of Hodeidah monitoring team

Government sources: internal rift between UN and Patrick Cammaert over dealing with Houthi rebels

The UN has denied reports that the head of the UN mission monitoring a ceasefire in Yemen's port city of Hodeidah had resigned.

Retired Dutch general Patrick Cammaert and his team arrived in Hodeidah last month to oversee the ceasefire agreed upon by Yemen’s government and the Houthi rebels at talks in Sweden earlier in December. He is the UN-designated chair of a Redeployment Coordination Committee, comprised of government and rebel representatives, set up to monitor its implementation.

Reports of Mr Cammaert's resignation emerged on Tuesday after weeks of tension over the rebels' refusal to honour the terms of the truce. Yemeni government officials also told The National that differences between Mr Cammaert and the UN special envoy to Yemen, Martin Griffiths, over dealings with the rebels had pushed him to resign.

“The various obstacles faced by General Cammaert, and the lack of co-operation by Mr Griffiths has created differences between the two officials, prompting General Cammaert to resign from his mission in Yemen,” the officials said.

However, a statement issued on the UN spokesperson's Twitter account on Wednesday refuted the reports and said Mr Cammaert was “continuing his work, contrary to media reports”.

Mr Cammaert attended talks in Riyadh on Thursday between Mr Griffiths and members of President Abdrabu Mansur Hadi's government as the UN envoy tries to shore up the Hodeidah agreement.

A young girl named Jenan Abdullah Hasan Suhail was killed today by a #Houthi sniper while she was leaving her house in Al-Tuhaita district in the port cirty of #Hodeidah. She was due to get married this coming Thursday, according to locals.

Hodeidah Official Criticizes UN Team, Wants to Take over City, its Port, Deliver it to US-Saudi Forces

The Undersecretary of Hodeidah province, Ali Qashir, said, on Wednesday, that the United Nations team wants to hand over Hodeidah and its harbor to the enemy. Basically, help them achieve what they failed to get with their military aggression.

"We, as a local authority in Hodeidah, have provided all the facilities to the UN team," Qashir said in a statement. "The national team in the coordination committee waited for the arrival of the other party, but we did not find any initiative from them", he added. He pointed out that the enemy and his mercenaries have not stopped targeting Hodeidah since the signing of the Swedish agreement.

The spokesman of the Armed Forces, Brigadier General Yahya Sari, said on Wednesday that the aggression and its mercenaries do not want peace for the Yemenis and do not want to implement the ceasefire in Hodeidah as they continue violating, despite the presence of the UN team and committees. He added that US-Saudi forces continue to violate Stockholm ceasefire, in the past 48 hours, with 289 violations in Hodeidah, challenging UN resolutions and renouncing their obligations in Sweden.

He said in a statement to the Yemeni news agency Saba that the US-Saudi mercenaries targeted by over 191 artillery shells and various medium and light weapons residential neighborhoods, farms and Yemeni Army' sites in several districts. He explained that the fighter jets and reconnaissance continued to fly intensely over Hodiedah city, Tahita Addurayhimi and Hais district.

Yemeni Army monitored movements of trucks carrying supplies of US-Saudi mercenaries and a bulldozer making fortifications in Hais.

The #Iran-supported #Houthi militia fighters have committed as many as 741 violations since the beginning of #Hodeidah Ceasefire Agreement, according to the spokesperson of the #Saudi-led Coalition Bri. Gen Turki al-Maliki.

The #10YearChallenge has taken social media by storm, with millions of users posting their current photos, juxtaposing to what they looked like 10 years back. But, more than those flashy sunglasses and quirky hairdo, there are some people who have addressed the global concerns, including the destruction brought by war in Yemen.

The Yemen, a war-torn country, is the grievous consequences of the Arab revolution 2011, which has largely affected the Middle East settlements.

The trending hashtag has highlighted how the Arab governments and foreign powers have destabilized the political landscape of Middle Eastern countries, causing unrest in the region.

Foreign secretary is first senior European minister to agree to attend controversial meeting

The foreign secretary, Jeremy Hunt, has agreed to attend a controversial summit organised by the US in Warsaw and originally billed as an alliance to confront Iranian aggression, but only on the condition that the US secretary of state hosts a meeting on Yemen on the summit’s margins.

Four-way meeting is expected to take place during Middle East security summit in Warsaw next month

The United States and Britain plan to hold a meeting on Yemen with Saudi Arabia and the UAE in Poland next month in a bid to revive faltering peace efforts in the war-torn country.

The meeting was announced by British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt after talks in Washington with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Vice President Mike Pence and National Security Adviser John Bolton on Thursday.

“Agreed with @SecPompeo today that we would host a meeting in February with Saudi Arabia & the UAE to bolster our support for the Stockholm process and agree next steps for further progress on a political settlement for Yemen,” Mr Hunt tweeted.

The meeting is expected to take place on the sidelines of a summit on Middle East security and the threat posed by Iran that will be held in Warsaw on February 13 and 14. Foreign ministers from the Gulf Cooperation Council, Egypt, Jordan, Israel and Morocco are expected to attend the summit.

My comment: This is a propaganda scam. All these four states are warring parties in the Yemnen war, standing together on one side of the conflict. Here, they want to play peace brokers: Arsonists as fire fighters.

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“I Had to Make Peace With Death”: A Q&A With “Targeting Yemen” Filmmaker Safa Al Ahmad

In order to investigate the escalating U.S. fight against Al Qaeda in Yemen and its impact on civilians, Al Ahmad traveled to drone strike territory to talk to survivors and witnesses. Unlike the front lines of a conventional battle, she says, drone strikes are unpredictable, making it difficult to calculate which risks to take as a journalist.

Al Ahmad also traveled to the sites of two U.S. ground raids, including the Navy SEAL raid that made headlines days after President Donald Trump was inaugurated. One of the survivors of that raid was Sheikh Abdulillah Al Dhahab, who had not been interviewed about what happened until he spoke to Al Ahmad.

Al Ahmad says she was drawn to this story because the Dhahab family featured so heavily in the 2017 ground raid on the village of Yakla. Some members of the family had ties to Al Qaeda, while others joined the sides fighting Al Qaeda. She spoke to FRONTLINE about how the family’s complexities reflect the complexities of Yemen, about the dangers she faced, and what she hopes viewers take away from the documentary.

SAA: I’ve been obsessed with the Dhahab family for a while, and I’ve been really interested in trying to find a way to tell their story. It didn’t end up in the film but Tariq, the head of the family, the brother of Abdulillah, was the one who declared an Islamic state in Baydah province and pledged allegiance to [Al Qaeda leader Ayman] al-Zawahiri — and one of his brothers is the one who killed him. It was such an epic family drama, on an international scale.

I keep thinking about how to tell the complexities of Yemen… I thought this story of the family would be a really good way into this… The Yakla raid just accentuated the prominence of the story.

It’s the most dangerous thing I’ve ever done, I think, professionally. I had to make peace with death. That’s the thing about drone strikes.

…One of my biggest problems when I was interviewing people is that they were afraid to tell the truth. Not because they wanted to lie, but just because they didn’t know what would get them into trouble.

Obviously, I think Yemen is an important story. Obviously, I think if you’re going to talk about people, you should go talk to them. It’s just basic respect for other human beings.

As part of its Yemen Campaign, Crisis Group will be publishing a weekly update on Yemen, providing up-to-the minute insight and analysis of the latest events in the country’s four-year-old civil war, which has sparked the biggest humanitarian crisis in the world. This is the first update.

The Present Context:

For more than six months the primary focus for diplomats, policy makers and analysts working on Yemen has been the now-frozen offensive on the Red Sea port city of Hodeida.

Recent Political and Military Developments:

The Yemeni government and the Huthis have told UN Special Envoy Martin Griffiths that they do not want to hold a second round of talks, originally scheduled for the end of January, until progress had been made on the Hodeida agreement – and Griffiths agrees. Preparations for the next round are continuing, with Germany, Kuwait and Switzerland mentioned as possible locations.

Fresh momentum cannot come soon enough. Coalition officials, particularly from the United Arab Emirates (UAE), have warned that if the parties fail to make progress soon on redeployments from Hodeida, the coalition parties and their Yemeni allies will return to hostilities. While this could be a tactical move to maintain pressure on the Huthis, it could well turn into military action if a negative momentum builds. For now, however, coalition officials remain committed to seeing the Stockholm Agreement implemented.

Even as rival forces have traded accusations of hundreds of ceasefire breaches since the truce was announced on 18 December (read more here), developments outside of Hodeida continue to arouse concern.

This project focuses on a neglected aspect of the Saudi-led attack on Yemen. The dominant accounts have focused on factors related to geostrategy, political parties, historical animosities (internationally, tribally and domestically), political economy and terrorism.

The task of this project is to look at the security, or the lack of it, of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) in terms of cultural identity.

Saudi society is relatively new, the current KSA formerly being the region called Hijaz which was made up of mainly nomadic Bedouin tribes and one main urban center, Mecca. Wahhabism, the official branch of Islam of the KSA is considered extremist for its belief in an unquestionable obedience to the political ruler and violent jihadism. Zaydism, the religious sect of Islam associated with the Hashemite clan (making up 20% of Yemen’s population) adheres to the notion of ijtihad "Independent reasoning." The Houthis, against whom the Saudis launched their attack on Yemen in 2015 are Hashemite; they had defeated the Saudis in the 2009 war begun by Saudi Arabia against the Houthis under virtually the same political conditions as the current war. The Houthi threat to the KSA also relates to the Houthis’ belief that the right to authority belongs only to Hashemites, which therefore gives them the right to be the sole authority culturally, socially, and politically in Yemen.

Rich in social, cultural and material (archaeologically and architecturally) history, (and suffering from agricultural self-neglect) it stands in stark contrast to the KSA’s oil and migrant worker based society. What the former lacks in petro-dollars the latter lacks in any distinct culture. Yemen has existed in different political forms for three thousand years; the KSA is less than a hundred years old and its oil producing days are coming to a visible end. Is this why the state has pressured Saudis to plot or be creative in genealogical relation to prominent Arabian tribes?

The project’s hypothesis is that Saudi Arabia is intimidated by Yemen the poorest country in the Arab world. This is not limited to the political and the military but extends to social, cultural and material and ancient history, and to the practice of independent thinking when it comes to interpretation of the Qura’n. Research will seek to determine the viability of this idea by looking at the self-perception of Saudis, and the perception of the KSA and Yemen by Arabs in general. Is it the case that if the KSA cannot have deep culture that Yemen should not either and thus be targets of social and cultural genocide?

Yemen is one of the most populous countries on the Arabian Peninsula. With a population that is 35 percent Shia, Saudi Arabia has also been concerned by what it sees as Iranian meddling in Yemen. Saudi Arabia has worried that the presence of Iran in Yemen could be risky for Sunni order, especially along part of its 1,800-kilometer border with Yemen.

From the viewpoint of the Saudi authorities, such a wide border is seen as the main point of penetration for extremists and terrorists such as al-Qaeda into Saudi Arabia. You only have to look at the list of detainees at Guantanamo Bay to know that Yemen has been a fruitful recruiting ground for al-Qaeda.

In the West's view, by controlling Yemen through the Houthis, Iran is aiming to increase its strategic and regional influence and is desirous for acceptance of its positions in Syria and Iraq, which is not desirable to the Arab-Western axis. In their view, the Houthis are the Iranian forces in Yemen, and Iran is a geopolitical threat to the axis.

The importance of control over Yemen for Saudi Arabia and the West is obvious. Instability along Saudi’s border with Yemen seems a threat to the global political and economic order as determined by the West and the Saudis.

TTThe United Nations Development Programme began a mine action training programme for 25 staff from our national implementing partner, the Yemen Executive Mine Action Centre (YEMAC). The four-week, 20-day, programme will help build the deminer’s capacity in identifying and neutralizing various types of Unexploded Ordinances commonly found in Yemen.

The training, which will run through 14 February, has been strategically created around the provision of extensive theoretical and practical modules on various topics including: (a) International Mine Action Standards; (b) proper use of demining and explosive ordinance disposal equipment; and, (c) exercises within battle area clearance. It has been made possible through the funding of our partners – the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates – and implemented by the the Danish Demining Group, a part of the Danish Refugee Council.

Restrictions on activists, journalists and government officials are worsening in tandem with human rights abuses, experts say

Human Rights Watch says it has been forced to close half its offices in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) due to the security or political risks associated with its work in the region, while the human rights abuses in those countries have only worsened.

At the MENA section launch of the group's 2019 World Report on Tuesday, HRW's regional experts lamented the fact that their organisation could not hold its annual event in any of the cities where it once had regional offices, such as Cairo, Tripoli and Sanaa.

"The Middle East has become closed to civil society," said HRW Middle East and North Africa director Sarah Leah Whitson in her opening remarks at the event, held at London's Frontline Club.

Many countries in the region, such as Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Morocco, have imposed strict visa restrictions on HRW officials to bar them from entering, Whitson said.

There was an unwritten agreement between the two countries on the spheres of influence: Saudi Arabia played a role in northern Yemen and the UAE supported southern groups. However, in the past three years, there has been a great deal of discord between the two countries over the division of influence in Yemen, and the field defeats. The launch of Yemeni ballistic missiles towards the UAE and Saudi Arabia, have also brought a dispute between the two states.

When Saudi-backed exiled President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi of Yemen, told the Saudi leadership of his desire to return to Aden, Riyadh replied that the Emirates were unable to comply with his request because it was not the right timing. Saudi Arabia strongly supports President Mansour Hadi, while the United Arab Emirates supports the Southern Transitional Council (STC), which seeks for an independent South Yemeni state.

Following the UAE objection, the pro-Mansour Hadi media and Yemeni Congregation for Reform (al-Islah) once again accused the Emirates of sabotaging the legal Yemeni government. Emirate media, for the first time since the meeting of Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi Mohammad bin Zayed, MbZ, with Chairman of the Islah party Mohammed al-Yadomi in December, resumed wave of attack on Yemen's al-Islah party.

An Emirati state-run newspaper Akhbar Al Arab in a report on Tuesday accused al-Islah party of managing the black market on classified information exchange, which refers to the operation of the secret information exchange carried out with the help of the army and Ansarullah forces.

According to Arab sources, al-Islah party has not functioned as desired by the UAE, because an important faction of the party is connected to Qatar.

The root of the UAE and Saudi disagreements in Yemen

Although the Emirates has participated in the Yemeni war in the form of an anti-Yemeni coalition with Saudi Arabia, the field evidence suggests that the UAE's ties to Riyadh are not very large in the Yemeni arena, and even the UAE is now reluctant to win Saudi Arabia, because Saudi Arabia Unlike its dealings with Abu Dhabi, the pro-UAE elements have been marginalized and even fired by the Cabinet in the undercover government of Yemen.

The discord between the two countries is enormous, but the close relationship between Saudi crown prince Mohammed bin Salman (MbS) and the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi MbZ prevented the conflict escalation. However, the differences will come to the surface in due course of time.

The discord over the Muslim Brotherhood

The Muslim Brotherhood and its role in southern Yemen have always been one of the major areas of conflict between Saudi Arabia and the UAE. Although Riyadh has repeatedly tried to resolve this issue in a variety of ways, the UAE still considers the Muslim Brotherhood an obstacle in southern Yemen.

The meeting between MbS and MbZ with the Muslim Brotherhood authorities in December 2017 sparked speculation of potential dispute resolution between the Yemeni Muslim Brotherhood and Abu Dhabi, though Emirati's media stance soon removed the speculation.

Dispute over the breakup of Yemen

The disintegration of Yemen is the second issue between Riyadh and Abu Dhabi. The economic importance of southern Yemen for the UAE has led the country to pursue the division of the region, and to do so, Abu Dhabi fully supports the Southern Transitional Council headed by Aidarus al-Zoubaidi.

In fact, in the Yemeni crisis, first and foremost, the UAE seeks to stabilize southern Yemen to keep the flow of free trade in the Strait of Bab al-Mandab and the surrounding area of Aden. Thus, Abu Dhabi will prefer the breakup of Yemen, if the STC, gets to have the upper hand – By Mohammad Ghaderi

cp3 Humanitäre Lage / Humanitarian situation

In March 2015, a long-running political crisis in Yemen escalated into violence.

The conflict has had devastating consequences for children in Yemen, there are shortages of food, medicines and vital supplies.

An estimated 85,000 children under the age of five may have died from acute malnutrition in three years of war in Yemen, a leading charity says.

The UN warned last month that up to 14m Yemenis are on the brink of famine.

The charity says that based on historical studies, if acute malnutrition is left untreated, around 20-30% of children will die each year.

For every child killed by bombs and bullets, dozens are starving to death and it's entirely preventable," its Yemen director, Tamer Kirolos, says.

Children who die in this way suffer immensely as their vital organ functions slow down and eventually stop, their immune systems are so weak they are more prone to infections with some too frail to even cry.

Doctors of the World brings healthcare to the most vulnerable people, including millions facing famine in Yemen. It also campaigns for an end to the war. As The BMJ appeal closes for this year, readers have generously donated almost £14 000, and there’s still time to give more. Richard Hurley reports

After more than three years of fighting between Saudi Arabian backed government forces and rebel groups, 22 million men, women, and children—over two thirds of Yemen’s population—are at risk of starvation.

“Without ending this war, all the aid in the world can’t solve this problem,” says Wafa’a AlSaidy, a Yemini pharmacist and general coordinator in the country for Doctors of the World, speaking to The BMJ from Sana’a.

But then there are some who give selflessly, not because they want attention for themselves, but simply because it is the right thing to do. They do it because they realise that they have so much that others don’t, and don’t do it because they are seeking rewards in the form of richness and recognition, but are just doing what is honourably expected of them. Nasr Al Jadhamy is one such man. For over 10 years now, this Omani national has been voluntarily collecting donations from kind-hearted people in the form of clothes, books, blankets, food and other basic necessities needed for people among the most underdeveloped countries to survive. For years now, Nasr has been sending aid shipments to unfortunate people in Tanzania, Kenya, Somalia and Palestine. In 2017, he included Yemen as part of his aid network. Deeply concerned by the plight that thousands of innocents faced in Oman’s south-western neighbour, Nasr reached out to all who had supported him in the past to gather aid to Yemen.

Providing urgent health care to millions: WHO and the Italian Agency for Development Cooperation work together to reach the most vulnerable

With a generous donation of 2 million euros from the Italian Agency for Development Cooperation, the World Health Organization (WHO) is scaling up efforts to meet health needs in Yemen through the health service delivery mechanism known as the Minimum Service Package. This is the first time since the start of the crisis in Yemen that WHO has partnered with the Agency.

To get to work each day, 26-year-old Yaarub Eissa rolls over dusty, bumpy roads and up and down steps. He then lifts himself onto the back of a passing motorbike and hooks his folded chair on the back.

“I did not let the disability stop my life. I continued, studied,” Eissa told Reuters, at work welding motorcycle parts in his father’s metal shop before heading to the English lessons he hopes will help him improve his life.

Eissa lost the use of his legs in an accident as a toddler and says the war means the number of disabled people is growing.

“There isn’t any attention from official institutions to help disabled people, or from international organizations either. Despite there being so many in Yemen at the moment,” Eissa said.

He lives in the Hajjah area of north-west Yemen, around 50 km (30 miles) away from active fighting, but says the war’s consequences reach every home in Yemen due to the uncertainties about the future and the lack of food and medical treatment.

Although we had not planned NEX11 to be themed, a common (and recurrent) thread emerges from the country articles: how to achieve effective coordination for nutrition in different contexts, with different stakeholders and through various mechanisms.

Very few positive stories are coming out of Yemen at the moment, but we report on a collaboration between local partners to deliver life-saving treatment services for children in Al-Hodeida governorate.

Yemen p. 22–23

Although Yemen joined the Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN) Movement in 2012, its SUN platform networks are currently not fully active due to the conflict, although some networks are involved in preparing an updated multi-sector plan of action for 2019-2021. Most nutrition activities are being coordinated by the humanitarian-focused Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC) Nutrition Cluster3 and development investments are limited, with the focus of government and its partners on emergency response for the time being.

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) celebrates 40 years in Yemen during a workshop to look back at the main highlights of its 2018 programme, including the Emergency Livelihoods Response Plan (ELRP), and to discuss the pillars and activities for 2019.

The Minister of Planning and International Cooperation and the Minister of Agriculture and Irrigation commemorated the occasion, with attendance by high-level delegation.

Across the besieged country of Yemen, millions of families are freezing, starving, and homeless.

Najla (4) used to live in the warm, sunny, port city of Hodeidah in Yemen with her little sister (2) and her mother. Her father has passed away.

In June 2018, as fighting reached Hodeidah, they were forced to flee to save their lives. They left everything behind, and escaped with Najla’s uncle’s family, fleeing 230km north east to the safety of a CARE-supported camp in the Amran region for people who have lost their homes.

The climate is colder, and the resources are few – families rely on donations to survive. For the first few weeks, they shared a small crowded tent with her uncle’s family – eight people in total.

Eventually they were able to find a small nearby shop that had been abandoned, and now Najla sleeps on its dirt floor with her mum and sister.

Their lives have become extremely difficult since they fled their home, especially for the little ones.

During the day, Najla makes the best of her situation; she loves to play with her sister, and her contagious smile helps keep her family’s spirits high. But at night is when Najla can’t cope.

“My daughters freeze at night,” her mother said. “We are from Hodeidah – we don’t know winter, and we have never experienced such cold weather.”

The camp that Najla’s family now depends on for supplies is home to about 1,000 displaced people from 145 families. CARE installed a water tank there and distributed 300 hygiene kits with soap and sanitary pads for women, and provided hygiene education to help prevent the spread of disease.

What they really need now is food.

14 million people across Yemen are so dangerously malnourished that the country is on the verge of famine.

CARE is providing the most vulnerable households with food vouchers, as well as distributing food supplies, to help families survive.

Film: Hanadi dreams to be a TV presenter. For the time being, she goes to school and collects plastic bottles to feed her family. All the time, day in, day out. It is always a war on children and children do fight back. One textbook and bottle at a time, just like Hanadi

The humanitarian situation in Yemen continues on a downward spiral, and the risk of famine inches closer to reality.

Ongoing conflict has left Yemen facing the world’s largest humanitarian crisis and food security emergency. Nearly 76 percent of the country needs aid to survive, and the situation is only getting worse. A new report shows that 15.9 million people are at experiencing severe acute food insecurity. Without humanitarian aid, the report estimates that this number would be more than 20 million people.

The United States is one of the world’s leading donors of humanitarian assistance for the Yemen response, providing more than $697 million in aid since October 2017. For more than three years, USAID and its partners have been fighting to prevent famine and provide people with life-saving assistance. Here’s what you need to know about what USAID is doing to stop famine from happening (with photos)

In 2018, UNICEF @UNICEF_Yemen covered the operational costs of over 40% (1,725) of the primary health care facilities in #Yemen to ensure they are open and functional, with operational costs, health worker per diems, medicines, supplies, equipment and training and supervision.

Despite the extreme challenges posed by famine, brutal conflict and cholera, UNFPA support is reaching women and girls in Yemen, the poorest of the Arab nations. From January 2017 to September 2018, UNFPA reached more than 1.2 million women and adolescent girls with family planning services and nearly 550,000 people with sexual and reproductive health (SRH) and gender-based violence (GBV) services.

Extensive partnerships and effective collaboration with the Yemeni Government, local non-profit organizations, United Nations agencies and donors have heightened the impact of UNFPA’s humanitarian response.

Pregnant women are malnourished: Today 3.25 million women and girls of childbearing age (15 to 49 years) need support. Escalating food shortages have left an estimated 1.1 million pregnant and lactating women malnourished, and threaten the lives of 75,000 women who are likely to develop complications during childbirth, including newborns with stunted growth.

“I had only bread and water throughout my entire pregnancy. My husband had lost his job and we could only afford very little food to feed the family,” Amana recalls. At 25, her second child was born with severe disabilities and died immediately. “Our living conditions are very difficult and it is only getting worse.”

Supplies and services are scarce: The precarious security situation, poor road infrastructure in some areas and other travel challenges across the country mean that reproductive health personnel, supplies and services in health facilities have become much more scarce and difficult for women and girls to reach. Only one third of Yemen’s health facilities are currently functional, with many clinics shuttered because of violence, mass displacements, economic collapse, departure of health workers and lack of supplies

“We are displaced, we are dispersed. Our situation is not normal. We are impoverished. We suffer in every way,” said Maleka Ali, who was pregnant when violence descended on her home in Taizz, Yemen. “I was frightened because of the intensity of the war and the explosions,” she told UNFPA. “We fled from Taizz, and I was so scared that I got asthma,” she said, which also put her baby at risk of health problems. Three million women and girls are at risk of gender-based violence: The number of women seeking GBV services increased by 36 per cent in 2017. Rates of child marriage (marrying under the age of 18) jumped from 52 per cent of Yemeni girls in 2016 to nearly 66 per cent in 2017.

Objectives • Re-establish reproductive health supply chain management in Yemen to support the delivery of lifesaving supplies and services for sexual and reproductive health including safe birth, family planning and rape treatment. • Revitalize partnerships to address the needs of women and girls. • Ensure the safety and security of UNFPA staff to enable the humanitarian response to the crisis in Yemen.

I am proud of the accomplishments of @YemenAid_US in a short amount of time. We have opened the first breast cancer clinic in #Lahj, #Yemen and have created 2 IDP camps in #Taiz, a charitable bakery in Sana’a & distributed over 12,000 food baskets from Dhala to Hajjah in 1 month (photos)

Ongoing hostilities remain the main driver of worsening food security, IDPs and those hosting them are the most vulnerable. People at risk of starvation are in Hajjah, Al Hudaydah, Sa’ada and Taizz Governorates. The economic crisis and resulting high food prices, disrupted livelihoods and high levels of unemployment also affects those not in conflict areas - the cost of the minimum/survival food basket is 150 per cent higher than before the conflict.

As a result, a large number of households in most districts across the country are forced to engage in negative coping strategies, including reducing the number of meals or size of food portions, consuming less preferred foods and prioritizing children’s consumption. In addition, households have also resorted to practices that will undermine their longer-term food security, such as selling animals and household items.

In 2018, 26 donors have contributed a total of $208 million to the Yemen Humanitarian Fund (YHF), making it the largest country-based pooled fund (CBPF) in the world for a third consecutive year. Between January and December, the YHF allocated $188m to 53 humanitarian organizations implementing 112 life-saving projects across all sectors of need. Humanitarian supplies available to a wide range of partners were prepositioned in key areas, allowing a fast response to crises.

The Yemen Joint Market Monitoring Initiative (JMMI) was launched by REACH in collaboration with the Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH) Cluster and the Cash and Market Working Group (CMWG) to support humanitarian actors with the harmonization of price monitoring among all cash actors in Yemen.

The JMMI incorporates information on market systems including price levels and supply chains. The basket of goods to be assessed comprises eight non-food items (NFIs), including fuel, water and hygiene products, reflecting the programmatic areas of the WASH Cluster. Since September 2018, the JMMI tracks all components of the WASH Survival Minimum Expenditure Basket (SMEB).

In December, WFP provided food assistance for some 7.9 million people in 19 Yemeni governorates, 84 percent of the monthly target of 10 million people. To respond to the increased levels of food insecurity caused by the ongoing crisis and exacerbated by the economic situation and the increase in food prices,

WFP is planning to scale up its assistance to reach 12 million people in January 2019, whereby 10 million severely food insecure people will receive in-kind food rations and 2 million will receive commodity vouchers.

cp4 Flüchtlinge / Refugees

(B H)

Film: "No one heard me, no one helped me." 22-year-old Yemeni Nada Ali has been pleading for asylum in Canada for two years with no success. Some have compared her case to Saudi runaway Rahaf al-Qanun.

Displaced people in Taiz province, south-west of Yemen, suffer from difficult humanitarian conditions due to the continued US-Saudi aggression and the siege.

The displaced said that they do not receive any assistance from international organizations and are living a great tragedy, facing the scourge of the US-Saudi aggression and its continuous siege for the fifth year.

They struggle to survive in primitive ways in simple camps lacking all the ingredients of a decent life, while others are confined to cramped rooms and accommodation, with cost of renting a heavy burden on them.

Some are preventing their young children from learning, instead they beg and work. Others are at risk in search of a living.

"We appeal to the officials and we appeal to the organizations to fear God in these displaced people," one displaced person told Al-Alam television. "The displaced have nothing to eat.”

Due to developments and shifts in the conflict, the severity of needs and number of PIN (People in Need) for Shelter/NFI/CCCM assistance have increased compared to the previous year with the total population in need increasing by almost 24 per cent from 5.4 million people last year to 6.7 million people this year (1.7 million men, 1.6 women, 1.7 boys and 1.7 girls). This was derived by the increase in displacement by 65 per cent from 2 million in October 2017 people to almost 3.3 million in November 2018 as a result of the increased fighting on front-lines particularly around the west coast. These massive numbers have impacted on host communities by increasing strains on public services and infrastructure and an increased pressure on limited resources. The population in acute need of Shelter/NFI/CCCM assistance also increased from 2.5 million people to 4.5 million (1.1 million men, 1.1 women, 1.2 boys and 1.1 girls), a 78 per cent increase from last year with high number of people with specific needs found across 207 districts in the country.

Response/ Cluster Updates

While violence continues to plague the conflict-ravaged country, the humanitarian needs of the Yemeni people further increase, with displaced families facing more challenges during the winter months simultaneously limited funding remain critical challenge to meet the basic requirements of affected populations in a timely manner. Despite the prevailing operational and security challenges, the Shelter/NFI/CCCM Cluster delivery of assistance to people in need continued, reaching out a total of 207,361 individuals during the reporting month through 16 active Partners who were working around the clock to deliver the response.

Strengthening of partnership and collaboration among partners and key stakeholders is an overarching objective of SMC. In order to promote this, the Shelter/NFI/CCCM cluster has continued to intensify efforts in creation of mutual relationships with the authorities and partners at the national, hub and governorate levels.

During the era of the #Iran-backed #Houthi militia, #Sanaa University has been turned into a place of #Death instead of being a place of education and life. The pictures of their dead bodies are covering the university halls (photos)

The leader of Yemen’s Houthi Ansarullah movement says his country is determined to stand up to oppressive measures of Saudi Arabia and its regional allies, which are involved in an atrocious military campaign against the impoverished Arab country.

Addressing his supporters via a televised speech broadcast live from the Yemeni capital Sana’a on Thursday evening, Abdul-Malik al-Houthi said, "The honorable people of Yemen have decided to stand against oppression," calling upon Yemenis from all social strata to remain resilient in the face of existing challenges.

“We will continue our steadfastness until the aggression against us ceases. The enemy is doing its utmost because it is extremely frustrated after failure to occupy our country. Our armed forces have built great military capabilities at all levels -- land, sea and air," he said.

“The enemy launched an economic war against us in a bid to exert the maxim level of pressure. It, however, could not break the will of our people,” Houthi said, adding, “The enemy seeks to use all methods to weaken the will of our nation in the face of its aggression.”

He highlighted that those who chose to pledge loyalty to the Saudi-led military alliance stood with oppressors against the oppressed Yemeni nation.

209 Yemeni brides and bridegrooms of the children of martyrs were wed yesterday in the Yemeni capital Sanaa. Almost the same number will be wed next week in Saada. All expenses were paid by the Martyrs Establishment. All now rejoicing, singing & dancing in a Sanaa stadium (photos)

A new Unit of the Yemeni Army and Popular Committees celebrated Wednesday their graduation from training and rehabilitation courses, announcing their readiness to go to the frontlines, fighting the US-Saudi aggression and mercenaries.

The unit, nicknamed the Martyr Abu Shahid Al-A'ash, in the Sixth Military Region, made a military presentation during their graduation ceremony

Al-Shdadi: The Houthis threatened 30 deputies in the House of Representatives to torture, kill and blow up houses

Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives Mohammed al-Shdadi said on Tuesday that the Houthi militants threatened 30 members of the Council, residing in the capital Sana'a, with torture, killing and bombing their homes, if they monitored any hostile- as they described- the movement of the deputies against them.

In an interview with the Saudi Arabian Middle East newspaper, he said he had received information indicating that the Houthis were preventing deputies in Sanaa from moving after they stormed their homes and threatened to blow them up.

He called for swift UN intervention to protect deputies who enjoy parliamentary immunity from any prosecutions.

Minister of Justice Judge Ahmad Akbat, accompanied by the Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research Hassin Hazeb and the Minister of State Dr. Hamid Al-Muzajji, on Monday paid visit to the tomb of martyr x-president Saleh al-Sammad and his companions in the Sabaeen Square in the capital Sanaa.

cp6 Südjemen und Hadi-Regierung / Southern Yemen and Hadi-government

Siehe / Look at cp1

(A K P)

Yemeni Government Voices Support for Ongoing Military Operations

A cabinet session convened in the Yemeni interim capital Aden reasserted the need for ongoing military operations conducted by the national army and the Saudi-led Arab Coalition to curb Houthi militias as ministers also warned vandalizes working to slow development projects and economic initiatives in liberated Yemeni areas.

Members of the Belabid tribe began a sit-in at the Aqla oil field in Arma district, northwestern Shabwah governorate on January 24. The tribesmen demanded that the Austrian company that owns the field award 50% of all oil transportation contracts to members of the Belabid tribe. They also sent a message to President Hadi, his Prime Minister, and the Governor of Shabwah demanding more basic services.[4]

A gunman was killed on Thursday in clashes between the so-called Security Belt militias, which are backed by the United Arab Emirates, and the so-called Public Security of the Islah Party (Yemeni branch of the Muslim Brotherhood) in Dalea province, southern Yemen.

“Medium and heavy weapons were used during the clashes,” a Yemen Press Agency correspondent said.

The reporter explained that the UAE-backed militias had opened fire from all their positions on the security administration that is loyal to the Islah Party.

Chief of General Staff Abdullah al-Nakha’e said Wednesday that the Yemeni government has taken measures to ban child soldiers recruitment and sending them to battlefields.

He called all local and international organizations to put pressures on the Houthis to end the recruitment of children.

He cited that the Yemeni government and the United Nations signed a roadmap to end the child recruitment and involvement of them in fighting, asserting that the Iran-backed Houthis still recruit children and use them as fuel to their wars.

My comment: As all sides are recruiting children, the Hadi government can start sending home the own ones.

(A P)

Southern Transitional Council Holds its Annual Meeting to Discuss Performance Report of 2018

President Al-Zubaidi asserted the importance of that first meeting to evaluate achievements and discuss new plans and programs for 2019 indicating that this year will be the empowerment year. He added that the council imposed the southern cause on all international levels making the cause very present in any upcoming decisions concerning the Yemeni crisis. The president also discussed outcomes of foreign meetings indicating the UN envoy is now fully informed that no solution for the Yemeni crisis without solving the southern cause. He also said: “We will continue our struggle side by side with all powers that believe in restoring the state. we will remain on the ground no matter the costs are. We will never abandon the martyrs’ bloods”.

Abductees mothers organize three protests in Aden and issue a statement on the kidnapped in Hodeidah

A statement issued by the mothers of the Abductees said Thursday that the years are passing and dozens of civilians from the province of Hodeidah are still in the custody of the Houthi prisons.

"Since the beginning of the armed clashes in al-Khokha, the suffering of our abducted people has doubled to more than 200 abductees," the association said in a statement published on its Facebook page. Dozens of them have been transferred to Sana'a, and have been prevented from communicating with their families. "

"They have created some secret prisons, and dozens of families have been blackmailed as detainees live under hunger and cold," the statement said.

The statement condemned the submission of nine abductees to the trial despite the signing by the Yemeni parties of the United Nations-sponsored Sweden agreement, which guarantees freedom for all those who have been abducted and forcibly hidden.

The Association of Mothers of Abductees called for the immediate and unconditional release of all those abducted and forcibly concealed

Organization calls for an Int’ commission to investigate the liquidation of citizens in prisons run by forces loyal to the UAE south of Yemen

The Organisation for Rights and Freedoms (SAM) on Wednesday called for the formation of an international commission to investigate the liquidation of 23 forcibly disappeared in prisons run by pro-UAE forces, in the light of the Yemeni government's inability to move effectively on the ground.

Sam, an international human rights organization based in Geneva and monitoring the situation in Yemen, has also called for the investigation of the heinous torture of detainees and those who have been forcibly disappeared in secret prisons and the accountability of those involved.

It revealed that detainees in the "Bir Ahmed" prison in Aden have been on an open hunger strike for four weeks, in protest against the failure of the criminal prosecution and other competent authorities to decide on their files, especially as some of them are serving three years in prisons or more, without any charges.

She said that the "Bir Ahmed" prison was a farm rented by the UAE forces in 2016, and turned it into a private detainee following the so-called "security Belt Forces" established by the UAE forces in the city of Aden.

It reported that there were 16 soldiers detained in prison who were subjected to various forms of physical and psychological torture.

The organization said that there were 23 persons who were forcibly concealed in secret prisons, in the prison of Shallal, Abu al-Yamamah, Yasran, Saleh al-Sayed/5th Brigade and the coalition, including officers, soldiers, and civilians, according to a complaint by detainees to the Interior Ministry Ahmed al-Maysari.

Prisoners’ hunger strike in Bir Ahmed is message aimed at fair trial for detainees or their release

An official in the so-called Peaceful Movement Council in southern Yemen, Salwa Ben Brik, has described what is going on inside the illegal UAE-run prison of Bir Ahmed in Aden. He described the situation as unjust and stressed that it must not be tolerated.

According to Ben Brik, the hunger strike at the Bir Ahmed Prison is a message that the prisoners are trying to bring to all, demanding the speeding up of their trial, or their release if they are not found guilty of any charges.

The human rights activist revealed her meeting with the mothers and relatives of the detainees, who assured her that they were demanding fair trials for their detained sons, and that the law should be applied whether they were found guilty or innocent.

Once again prisoners in Bir Ahmed prison in Aden circulate list of names of detainees they say reportedly died in custody of UAE backed #Yemen|i forces. Some families dispute claim given no evidence. Ongoing torment for years now as authorities fail to reveal fate of disappeared.

This is one of the reasons it’s argued that enforced disappearance is in itself a form of torture.. as families agonize for years not knowing if their missing loved ones are dead or alive. #Yemen|i and #UAE authorities have an obligation to reveal the fate of these detainees (image)

Southern Transitional Council of Shabwa Issues A Statement About Al-Okla

Local leadership of the Southern Transitional Council in Shabwa issued a major statement on Monday January 21st, 2019, concerning the events of Al-Okla – Arma. The statement asserted the council’s full support to demands of the right of Shabwa in empowering its citizens and getting its full share of oil production, transfer and exports, in addition to securing these facilities by Shabwa Elites troops and military personnel of the governorate. The statement indicated that recent events in Al-Okla – Arma are natural responses towards Yemeni domination over Shabwa fortunes according to previous policies that turned Shabwa and the whole south into Fiefdoms and private farms for Sanaa gangs since 1994 war.

A human rights report revealed that Saudi and Emirati forces in Al-Mahrah province have committed a number of human rights violations against civilians in the province, which is far from areas of conflict. A report in the human rights office in the province stated that Saudi Arabia captured Al-Juhaida International Airport, where the Saudi forces were carrying out a series of violations, as well as turning a civilian facility (airport-port) into a military base. Arbitrary detention and enforced disappearance, Legally empowered, and physical and psychological violence are some of these violations.

The airport is occupied by Saudi forces and they have refused to reopen it. The latest report accused the use of human and military force and intimidation, the use of individual and collective detention rooms to restrict the freedom of civilians. No detainees have been put through a fair trial or referred to a Public Prosecution. Some of the prisoners were sent to Saudi Arabia and their fate still unknown.

The report revealed the refusal of the command of Saudi forces to allow the prosecution or any official or civil authority to enter the prison at the airport. No organization has been able to investigate the facts. The degree of violations practiced by the Saudi forces amounted to the level of crimes against humanity. The report pointed that the office does not have any integrated legal monitoring data because of the lack of access to the detainee, noting that the preliminary information indicates that some military arrest of citizens in private rooms for between 1 and 10 days, and taken to an unknown destination (forced concealment).

The report revealed that the Saudi forces, with the complicity of the so-called legitimacy, the establishment of several military barracks near the homes and areas of citizens and their places of work and source of livelihood, which led to the evacuation of the inhabitants of these sites.

Hadi government-aligned forces began a campaign against al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) in western Taiz governorate, southern Yemen on January 21. The campaign began after Hadi government forces identified the location of senior AQAP official Bilal al Wafi (also known as Abu al Walid). The 35th Armored Brigade and forces from Abu Abbas, a Salafi militia sanctioned by the U.S. for supporting AQAP and the Islamic State, are participating in the campaign.[2]